Smorgon foundation among those demanding urgency over child abuse recommendations

Henrietta Cook, Jane Lee

Victim support groups and philanthropists say the Napthine government is taking too long to implement recommendations for preventing child abuse that were made in a state inquiry.

One of Australia's leading philanthropic groups, the Jack and Robert Smorgon Families Foundation, has written to the Premier urging him to implement all recommendations before the November state election.

The foundation’s chief executive Andrew Blode warned: "If the Victorian government delays taking action any longer, these same institutions named in the inquiry, which receive in excess of $320 million from DHS to provide community services, would be viewed as a 'betrayal of trust'."

When the Betrayal of Trust report was tabled in November, Premier Denis Napthine said the government would consider all the recommendations “as a matter of urgency.”

But it has implemented only three of the 15 recommendations, with laws for a fourth before Parliament.

The Coalition refuses to commit to a time frame for implementing the rest, which aim to make Victorian schools and non-government organisations more accountable for abuse allegations and to make it easier for victims to claim compensation.

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The state inquiry into the handling of child abuse exposed the way churches, children’s homes and other non-government organisations had hidden and perpetrated sexual and physical abuse of children over many decades.

Commission of Inquiry Now president Bryan Keon-Cohenrecently wrote to Dr Napthine on behalf of 12 victim support groups, urging him to avoid further delays.

The government has previously said it must be “mindful of the work of the royal commission ... and the intersection of its work with some of the inquiry’s recommendations.”

But Dr Keon-Cohen said it could be years before all states and territories agreed on a federal model for victim compensation, with older victims at risk of dying before this happened.

Religious institutions were incapable of “healing themselves” and real reform could not happen without legal force.

“It is an example of victims attempting to achieve closure, justice and support for their suffering, of their hopes being raised and then dashed by government inaction and inability to face tough issues,” he said.

Labor MP Frank McGuire, deputy chair of the inquiry, repeated his calls for urgent action in state Parliament on Tuesday night and said the government should not use the “excuse” of waiting for the royal commission to wind up to “make vulnerable children in Victoria safer”.

He said non-government organisations that receive government funding or assistance needed to be incorporated and properly insured so they can be sued.

Shireen Gunn, manager of the Ballarat Centre Against Sexual Assault, said victims continued to suffer. She knew of at least one who had committed suicide since the inquiry, while others were suicidal, with drugs and alcohol problems and troubled family relationships. Some victims struggled to hold down jobs and continued to negotiate for compensation with the institutions under whose care they were abused.

“It is about ongoing quality of life. It is the difference between barely existing and (knowing) that they are supported through those difficult times.”

The government early this year created new offences for grooming, failure to protect children from abuse and failure to disclose abuse. Laws requiring ministers of religion to get working-with-children checks are before Parliament.

A government spokesman said work was “progressing well” on the recommendations that had not yet been implemented and more laws would be introduced into Parliament this year.

“The government has given priority to those recommendations of the report relating to criminal offences and child safety.”

The committee recommended that the Victorian government consider (items in bold have been implemented already):

1. Making it a crime to fail to report a serious indictable offence involving the abuse of a child

2. Making it a crime for organisations that undertake “relevant wanton or reckless behaviour” regarding known child abuse risks